Sweet Tooth
by DevineAncient
Summary: Slowly and steadily, Alice comes to realise what she has lost, and what she has gained, all through the help of a few dozen stolen apples.


A/N: This is a small ficlet that I have wanted to write since I first began to read Pandora Hearts. I loved the scene in which Alice would be holding bags of apples, Oz asked if she wanted to eat while she was staring at the meat and she said that she did, but Gilbert started to talk about ingredients and how they would cost less the only thing I could think was 'Oh, Alice would probably steal those if she wanted them enough' though I traded meat for apples, I think that this is still cute. To be honest, this is the first fan fiction that I have ever finished, so I'm pretty proud of myself.

Disclaimer: If I owned Pandora Hearts, don't you think me and Break would have taken over the world by now?

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"Alice you can't just take that!"

"Stupid Rabbit give it back right now!"

"Alice, wait!"

Alice ignored them all, running away quietly until she was enveloped into the large crowd that made up the market place. She eventually stopped, tired and out of breath as she climbed onto a stack of large wooden boxes, thrown out from lack of use. She shifted the heavy bag in her arms as she swung her legs, crossed, over the side of the bags. She huffed, turning her gaze to the content of the bag. "Who are they to tell _me_, who is much better and greater than them, what to do?" She reached one white gloved hand into the bag, pulling out a red apple. Turning the apple in her hand, she glared at her reflection in the shininess of it.

She didn't understand. Why couldn't she just have what she wanted? She shouldn't have to use…what did Oz call it? Money.... She was better than them, so…why? Confusion buried itself deep in her core as she remembered the look of frustration on the face of the idiot Ravens face, coupled with the persuading look in Oz's eyes as they tried to chase her down. She couldn't understand, and that pissed her off. Why should she be made to do something she didn't want to do? She knew that if she actually wanted to, she could force the Raven to unleash her power, and she could just force the man behind the booth to give her everything she wanted for free, as it should be. That was what she should do.

Alice furrowed her brow as she started to take a bite of the apple, only to throw it back into the bag with a snarl of irritation. Why couldn't she just do as she pleased?! It had never been like this in the Abyss! All of the chains below her had understood her position and how futile it would be to fight her! Sure, some of the stupider ones had attacked her anyway, but they had all been disposed of accordingly and things had returned to the way they where, to the way they where supposed to be.

But….

When she had been in the Abyss, there was always a sense of "nothingness". There had been nothing but fighting. The fighting that had familiarized her with the color of blood, had even forced her into a place where she had felt that it was the only thing that had connected her with the feeling of "living". The thrill of winning, of punishing those who had dared to step up against her, had come together in her mind as "feeling". When she could feel anything other than the cold that started at her core when she was all alone, and ended up in her mind, singing at the folds of her sanity, she considered it a rarity, even an enjoyable sometimes. She had come to need it, especially in the times when she had reached for her memory in the back of her mind, but had found nothing to cling to but now…Now she had Oz, and the idiot Raven. Hell, she even considered the Clown and Sharon part of whatever it was building in her chest when she was together with them all. She didn't understand it! She didn't understand it, but….

"A-Alice…"

Alice blinked and looked up from the bag of apples towards the golden haired boy in standing in front of her. He was hunched over, panting from chasing her all over the marketplace. Behind him, there was a taller man that was holding onto the rock wall, looking to be in a similar condition, though he seemed to still have enough energy to glare at her in contempt. Alice snorted at him. "What, that idiot Raven didn't even have enough energy to chase after a little girl?" She laughed and she hopped off the crates, landing softly on her feet. She took one hand off the bag to sweep it through her hair, pushing her black-colored locks back. "What happened to all that talk that was coming from you earlier?"

Gilbert pushed himself up off the wall, debating on whether or not to pull his guns on the stupid Rabbit that just stood, mocking him without a care. "Do you even know…what kind of trouble you caused us?" Oh, he could remember it clearly now, how angry the owner of the booth had been when he had found one of his bags of apples missing from his counter. He could remember how the stupid Rabbit had taken off with the bag as quick as she could, leaving him and his master to clean up the mess she had made. He could remember how Oz had taken off after her soon afterwards; leaving him to pay the man money he shouldn't have had to spend, then having to run extra-fast to catch up with Oz so that he wouldn't lose sight of both his charges. He could feel his heart ramming against his chest violently, nausea that was overtaking him now that the adrenaline from running was wearing off. He felt weak, but not weak enough to let the Rabbit off the hook.

"What the _hell_ did you think you where doing? We told you that we weren't going to get you any stupid apples, because, as I have said before _ingredients are much cheaper than something like that _and we are not going to waste money on something we could buy later! So what, when I clearly stated that, possessed you to run off with a bag full of them? That is illegal activity! You should know better you stupid retarded Rabbit-"

"Gil."

Gilbert broke off as Oz, still hunched over, waved an arm at him. "That's enough, you know?" He said, grinning happily as he sat up and took the bag of apples from Alice. "I'm sure she won't do it again, right Alice?" Alice blinked, surprise flickering over her features. "Ah…yeah…" Oz smiled happily. "Ok then, let's be off." He walked away, dragging a still irate Gilbert with him.

Alice watched him as he walked off with the Raven. Why? She had done something wrong right? So why wasn't he screaming at her like that idiot Raven? She didn't get him. He was such a stupid kid. Even so, she felt something pull at her heart, and the warm feeling from before grew. She didn't understand it….She didn't understand it but….

"Alice!"

"Oi, stupid Rabbit, hurry up!"

Alice blinked and allowed a small smile to come to her face. "Coming!" She raced to catch up to the two, who had stopped to wait for her.

She didn't understand it but….the cold had receded, and something warmer and greater had replaced it. Something she wouldn't replace for the world.

She could only hope she would be allowed to keep the feeling close to her heart for as long as she lived.

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A/N: R&R Darlings!

October 10, 2009

Word Count: 1,429 words in total.


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